Ratchet and Clank are back again (or should that be again-again?) for their third adventure.
After their second adventure Clank (the little robot) now has his own TV show while Ratchet has been sitting around waiting for some action. Meanwhile the evil robot Dr Nefarious is plotting a scheme to turn all organic life forms into robots. Naturally you’d think they’d want R&C to save the galaxy again but the President asks you to save the super hero Captain Qwark (who you may remember from the first two games). Qwark then creates ‘The Q Force’ which features characters from the first two games… and a monkey named Scrunch. Keeping with the trend there’s a lot of humour in the cut scenes and it's as funny R&C 1 and 2.
The gameplay is very similar to the previous games but with a few new elements lobbed in, but we’ll get to them later. As before, you’ll be going from planet to planet using a varied and devastating set of weaponry. The basic weapons consist of a normal blaster and shotgun but after that they get more interesting with the likes of a ‘black hole maker’, an ‘infector gun’, a gun that fires blades, a rocket launcher named the ‘annihilator’, there’s even a whip, and many more.
Favourite guns from R&C 2 make an appearance in the form of the lava gun, the bouncer, mini turret glove, plasma coil and suck cannon (which you can get for free if you have a R&C 2 save on your memory card). All of the weapons can be upgraded by using them often, each weapon has 5 upgrade levels and each time they upgrade they gain more power and abilities like electricity and acid with the final level being truly devastating - for example, the lava gun changes into the liquid nitrogen gun that freezes the enemies then shatters them!
Ratchet has some gadgets at his disposal as well; hackers, swing shot, gravity boots and the refractor that you use to change laser’s directions. Most of the weaponry and gadgets are still purchased with bolts that you collect from slain enemies and the destructible scenery. Like I said earlier the usual mix of platform hopping and collecting bolts is only part of the game, with a few new elements being introduced. During your missions you’ll bump into a squad of (good) robot soldiers who call you Sarge and you lead them into battle in a sort of multiplayer-style objective game where you have to defend a certain point from waves of enemies, then attack their base to retake the planet. Vehicles also make an appearance in this part with a hovership that’s really useful, and a buggy that’s not so useful. Another cool level type comes in the form of ‘vid comics’ (video games to you and me) that Ratchet plays. These games come in the style of 2D side scrolling platformers with 3D graphics featuring the adventures of Captain Qwark, and are quite fun to play. You can play as Clank again in one of the game’s cool levels in which you are acting out an action sequence in his show Secret Agent Clank.
The biggest new addition is the split screen and online multiplayer mode. This is an objective-based game with a maximum of 8 players playing on levels set on the single player campaign’s planets. It features taking over spawn points and collecting the huge arsenal of weapons to unleash on the other team, the gadgets also make it into the multiplayer offering different routes into the enemy base (using the gravity boots to walk upside down through a hidden tunnel for example). Only problem was that I couldn’t actually find a game for quite a while but once in it was totally lag free and fun.
Insomniac Games does a great job with the graphics. It really is a nice looking game, there’s so much stuff going on at once; loads of enemies, ships flying around and general goings on. The worlds are highly detailed and varied; there are objects on every surface with hardly any flat surfaces, and it all stays super-smooth throughout. The weapon effects look superb with little details like embers dropping from the lava gun and sparks coming off the plasma whip and electric powered guns. The great voice acting returns along with all the excellent music and sound effects.
Overall Ratchet & Clank remain as my favourite platforming duo with excellent graphics, sound and now a multiplayer mode to boot. An excellent stocking filler I say.
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